In a story titled: "Mixed sales reported from local retailers," Business editor, Jim Szymanski, filed the following in The Olympian:

Despite national reports of tepid holiday sales, a sampling of Olympia-area merchants evoked generally upbeat responses Monday.

Though merchants declined to discuss sales in specifics, many said sales were running at least a little ahead of last year.

It turns out that all of the stores that reported good sales this Christmas season are downtown (Wind up Here, Whodunit Books, Popinjay, Bartel's men's store), and all of the stores that reported not-so-good sales were at the mall (some guy with a kiosk and NW cutlery). This seems like it might be an important fact to mention. Evidently not.

Also, why the phony balance? Four major shops say that they've already done better than last year, while 2 (1 and a kiosk, really) say they could do better, and that adds up to "mixed sales"? What gives?